Together At Fault
by Terion
Summary: Same verse as Seeing Beneath Your Masks. After sending Alistair to Morrigan for the ritual, his fellow Warden is left to think over what she's done to the man she loves. What happens when he comes back to her isn't quite the reaction she expected either.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of the _Dragon Age_ universe but my games and strategy guides. This is just me making a mess in the sandbox.

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><p>Carina choked on another sob as she buried her face in Salroka's fur, one arm wrapped as tightly around the big mabari as she could. Her ever loyal hound whined and lathed his broad tongue across her face as if telling her that it would be alright, that he was there for her. The feel of something brushing across the brand on her face, however, made her think of Alistair, of his habit of running his fingers over it whenever they were in private and fresh tears welled in her eyes.<p>

She was a _terrible_ excuse for a Grey Warden and selfish; far more selfish than any Warden had a right to be.

There was a reason the motto included the word _sacrifice_.

And she was too Stone-damned _duster_ for her own good. That left her at where she was: lying in Alistair's bed with her dog, waiting for him to come back from the fate she'd sent him to. He hadn't wanted to go, had _begged_ her not to make him do it but she had talked him into it. She was _selfish_ and wanted so much to keep him.

By all her dust-choked ancestors, she didn't want to chance losing him after she'd just wrenched him out of Eamon's grasp. Even if it meant he had to lie with another woman, had to help give life to a child he'd never see, had to bring a untainted Old God back into the world. She wanted _him_ and by the human's flaming prophetess she would risk dooming the world to do so.

Closing her eyes tightly, Carina clung to her hound and wished she was stronger than she was. Then her eyes flew open at the sound of the door opening and she wanted to turn, wanted to _see_ him, wanted to _touch_ him and know everything was alright but…she couldn't. Not when she'd sent him to _that_.

Salroka whined and she looked up as a broad hand came down to rub at the hound's ears. The mabari made a contented noise then wriggled out of her grasp and off the bed, moving to sprawl near the fire with a huff that was seemed akin to him saying _stop being silly, he forgives you_. She stretched out her arm, wanting his warmth back as well as the shield his large body provided but the mabari was having none of it.

Instead a different body slumped into his place and she closed her eyes as she inhaled the scent of freshly clean male. Then that same broad hand closed calloused fingers over her chin and Alistair softly said, "Please look at me. _Rina_, love, please. _Please_."

So much of her wanted to fight the urge to open her eyes but Carina didn't. Her eyelashes fluttered and then he tilted her chin back so she could see his face, his reddish-blond hair still standing in wild half-dried spikes from his bath. His dark eyes bored into her, feeling like they were burning to her very core, and she squirmed closer to get away from them, trying to tuck her head underneath his chin and just _forget_.

Alistair wasn't having any of that, however. Oh yes, he pulled her close, securing her smaller body against his but he didn't let her hide. Instead he dragged her upwards to where she _had_ to look at him and held her tightly. Then his hand moved from her chin, fingertips brushing over the blue shapes that made up her brand and she very nearly started sobbing again.

After what she'd just made him do, she couldn't fathom why he wanted to touch her.

"Why are you here?" she asked, tears trying to choke her voice but failing at the moment.

"Well this _is_ my room." Alistair then leaned forward, pressing his lips against her forehead in a soft kiss. Then he breathed, "And because I want to be here. With you."

Carina shuddered at that. "Why? Why after what I just had you do?"

"Rina – "

"_I made you have sex with Morrigan!_"

She could feel him flinch violently and his arm tightened around her as he grumbled, "Thank you. Now the whole castle knows what happened and I was so hoping not to have Eamon glaring at me for any _more_ reasons." That made a choked laughed tumble out of her and Alistair stroked his hand up and down her back in a reassuring gesture. Then he leaned his forehead against hers, eyes drifting shut as he let out a ragged breath. "I don't want either of us to die, Rina. Maybe it wasn't my first choice for how to but it's done."

"What if Morrigan was lying?" asked Carina even though she knew the witch wasn't. She'd become close to all of their companions while they were traveling and considered them all her brothers and sisters. It would hurt to lose them to whatever fate would befall them after this battle but…losing Alistair would have hurt more.

"I may not like her but I've seen how you two interact. You're like _sisters_, Rina, and I don't think she would hurt you like that. Not after all we've been through together."

His words were a soothing balm on the worried snarl that was her mind – not enough to drive all of it away but enough to lessen it. That he was able to recognize that, was able to _admit_ it despite everything showed how much he'd grown in the past year. He'd been a boy on an adventure when they'd met and then had become the boy running from a birthright he'd never wanted. Somewhere between there he'd gained his feet and grown by leaps and spans…yet was never able to _show_ it because of the weight of the crown looming over his head. Now she had freed him of that burden, given him the chance to finally – _finally –_ chose where to go for himself and he was truly stepping into the shoes of the man that had always been hiding behind the boy.

Sighing into his skin, Carina nodded. "I know," she whispered, limbs finally unfreezing so she could trace nonsense patterns across his chest. He squirmed at a ticklish spot as she ran her fingers across one broad muscle then growled as she tangled her fingers in the sparse reddish hair there. Then she pressed her palms against his chest and asked, "Do you forgive me?"

Alistair's eyes opened then and he seemed to drink in the sight of her for a moment before both arms wrapped around her. He rolled onto his back, dragging her with him and they stopped with her straddling his chest. Then his broad hands were dragging her face downward, consuming her mouth with his own as those hands began wandering down her shoulders until they found the hem of her shirt and dove underneath.

She clutched at his broad shoulders as his fingers found her breasts, teasing and cupping them until her whole body felt afire. Somewhere between kisses Carina managed to breathe his name, making him growl and sending her squirming as the rumbling in his chest beneath her sent tremors through other sensitive areas. A moment later they flipped around again and he was on top, pressing her into the softness of the mattress.

When they finally slowed, both of them breathing hard, she realized that somewhere in between they'd both lost their shirts and the laces to his trousers had disappeared entirely. Blinking a few times up at him, Carina found herself laughing and reaching up to touch his cheek. "Is that a yes?"

"Unless you've been secretly a blood mage all this time," answered Alistair with a smirk, "I _agreed_ to do this. So there's nothing to forgive you for, Rina, because we're both at fault here." One broad hand then trailed along her side and his heated eyes caught hers as he started to move down the bed. As his fingers caught underneath the edge of her trousers, she hitched a breath and he chuckled against her skin as he bent to kiss her hip. "Besides…I'd do anything to keep my beautiful lady of the stone. Haven't I proven that?"

Carina blushed because Rica had always been the beautiful one and she'd never thought of herself as anything compared to her sister. Then she'd met the man who was deliciously inching her trousers and smallclothes down her hips with that heat in his eyes and that smile that was all for her.

Smiling, she lifted her hips to help him and then crooked a finger as he tossed her clothing aside. Alistair crawled back up the bed towards her, pinning her body underneath his again as he kissed her and she wrapped her arms around his neck. Carina twined her fingers in the hair at the base of his skull and closed her eyes, silently blessing the Stone that she had been caught during the Proving and ended up in the Wardens. Without this man – this handsome, goofy, noble human who'd chosen all of her short, stubby, dwarva self over someone like Morrigan or Leliana – she didn't think she would have ever been complete.

"That and more, Alistair," she answered with a kiss on his cheek as his fingers traced over her brand again. "That and more."

Then she smiled wickedly and reached down to tug at his trousers. Alistair complied to her silent order with an equally wicked grin and then they sank into each other, reaffirming their love and affection for each other for what could very well be the last time despite Morrigan's ritual assuring their survival against the Archdemon.

They both knew all too well that the world could so easily flip out from under their feet and that they had to take what they could of their happiness while they had it.


End file.
